Call us, Malaysia Airlines tells relatives of MH17 victims

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Airlines has appealed for the relatives of people killed in the MH17 crash to contact the company, saying efforts have failed to contact many of them.

Airline officials have been working with embassies in 11 countries to trace relatives of the dead as world leaders demand a safe corridor be established in the war-torn area of eastern Ukraine where the bodies remain unrecovered, including those of 80 children.

“The airline together with various foreign embassies have made every effort to establish contact with the next of kin but is still unable to identify many more family members,” the company said in a statement.

After the loss of the second Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 in five months, many of the airline’s staff are struggling to cope and some are so upset they have been unable to function at work, according to Malaysia’s National Union of Flight Attendants president Ismail Nasaruddin.

“Crew members have been demoralised by this tragic incident,” Mr Ismail told journalists.

“We are very sad, very depressed … it is mass murder.”

Relatives of crew members of MH370, which disappeared on March 8 in one of the world’s most baffling aviation mysteries, still have not filed compensation claims against the airline, saying they are holding out hope they are still alive.

That plane with 239 people on board is believed to have crashed thousands of kilometres off course in the southern Indian Ocean.

Before MH17 was shot down in the deadliest attack ever on a commercial airliner, Malaysia Airlines was struggling with a loss of $148 million in the first quarter of 2014.

The state-controlled company lost 25 per cent of its share value in the first half of the year and about 30,000 bookings were cancelled or delayed as a result of the disappearance of MH370.

The company has announced it will waive fees for passengers who have booked on flights but want to cancel or change flights in the wake of the MH17 disaster.